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Social housing policy in the metropolitan area of Athens during the period 1922–2012

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2021

Nikolina Myofa Open the ORCID record for Nikolina Myofa [Opens in a new window]
Nikolina Myofa*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Harokopio University, Eleftheriou Venizelou Avenue 70, GR-176 76 Kallithea, Athens, Greece
*
*Corresponding author. Email: nikolmyofa@hua.gr
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Abstract

The aim of this survey is to present the Greek social housing model as a part of the southern European model through an Athenian case-study. Several characteristics of the Greek housing model are unique, and the analysis of the Athenian case provides an example that emphasizes those characteristics. Moreover, this survey intends to contribute to filling the gap in the relevant urban history and geography bibliography and, more specifically, to describe the Greek social housing model and the role of the city of Athens in the planning and distribution of social housing. This survey is based mainly on secondary data (literature review) but also on primary sources.

Type
Survey and Speculation
Information
Urban History , Volume 50 , Special Issue 2: Community, culture, crisis: the inner city in England, c. 1960–1990 , May 2023 , pp. 319 - 338
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

1 G. Kandylis, T. Maloutas and N. Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing in a residual welfare state: housing estates in Athens’, in D.B. Hess, T. Tammaru and M. van Ham (eds.), Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation, and Policy Challenges (Cham, 2018), 77–98.

2 The author of this book attempts not to categorize Europe in ‘regions of otherness’. Thus, ‘it takes into account the invented nature of these spatial definitions and boundaries and instead maps out a more inclusive, fluid urban geography’. R. Wakeman, A Modern History of European Cities: 1815 to the Present (London, 2020), 17.

3 I. Dimitrakopoulos, National Analytical Study on Housing, RAXEN Focal Point for Greece (ANTIGONE-Information & Documentation Centre, 2003).

4 Allen, J., Maloutas, J. Barlow, J. Leal, T. and Padovani, L., Housing and Welfare in Southern Europe (Oxford, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Ibid.

6 A. Pittini and E. Laino, Housing Europe Review 2012. The Nuts and Bolts of European Social Housing Systems (CECODHAS Housing Europe's Observatory, 2011).

7 Due to the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the inter-war period in Greece began a few years after World War I in 1922.

8 Wakeman, A Modern History.

9 Such as refugees, internal migrants, salaried workers and residents who lived in old estates in inadequate housing conditions.

10 Kandylis, Maloutas and Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing’; N. Myofa, ‘Social housing in Athens. Study of the refugee settlements Dourgouti and Tavros from 1922 until today’, Harokopio University Ph.D. thesis, 2019.

11 Panorama is a web application that provides access to Population and Housing Census data for the years 1991 as well as 2001 and 2011. ELSTAT–EKKE, Panorama of Greek Census Data 1991–2011, https://panorama.statistics.gr/, accessed 10 Nov. 2018.

12 D. Lampropoulou, ‘City, memory and oral history’, in R. van Boeschoten, T. Vervenioti, D. Lampropoulou, M. Mouliou and P. Chatzaroula (eds.), Memory Narrates the City. Oral History and the Memory of Urban Space (Athens, 2016), 9–26.

13 L. Leontidou, The Mediterranean City in Transition. Social Change and Urban Development (Cambridge, 1990).

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 V. Gizeli, Social Transformations and Origin of Social Housing in Greece (1920–30) (Athens, 1984).

17 Leontidou, The Mediterranean City.

18 I. Papaioannou and E. Vasilikioti, Housing in Greece (Athens, 1975).

19 Leontidou, The Mediterranean City.

20 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

21 Ibid.

22 Gizeli, Social Transformations.

23 Leontidou, The Mediterranean City.

24 I. Vasiliou, Popular Housing (Athens, 1944).

25 Ibid.

26 Wakeman, A Modern History.

27 Vasiliou, Popular Housing, 83.

28 Ibid.

29 S. Stavridis, P. Koutrolikou, F. Vatavali, M. Kopanari, C. Marathou and V. Gizeli, Transformations of the Relationship between Public and Private Space in the Public Housing Compounds in the Greek Cities, Report for the Basic Research Subsidization Program (Athens, 2009).

30 This issue has many implications and is far beyond the scope of this survey. For more, see R. Hirschon, ‘The creation of community: well-being without wealth in an urban Greek refugee locality’, in M. Cernea and C. McDowell (eds.), Risks and Reconstruction: Experiences of Resettlers and Refugees (Washington, DC, 2000), 393–11.

31 Vasiliou, Popular Housing.

32 Gizeli, Social Transformations.

33 M. Harloe, The People's Home? Social Rented Housing in Europe and America (Oxford, 1995).

34 C. Reinprecht, C. Levy-Vroelant and F. Wassenberg, ‘Learning from histories: changes and path dependency in the social housing sector in Austria, France and the Netherlands (1889–2008)’, in K. Scanlon and C. Whitehead (eds.), Social Housing in Europe II. A Review of Policies and Outcomes (London, 2008), 37.

35 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Stavridis et al., Transformations.

39 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

40 Kotzamanis, V. and Maloutas, T., ‘State intervention in the field of housing: the factors that shape its character in post-war Greece’, Greek Review of Social Research, 56 (1985), 129–54Google Scholar.

41 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

42 A. Sapounakis, ‘Settlement issues in regular dwelling in Greece during the financial crisis’, in K. Manolidis and G. Stylidis (eds.), Changes and Reconceptualization of Space in Greece during the Crisis, Conference Proceedings, 1–3 Nov. (Thessaly University, 2013), 465–72.

43 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

44 Stavridis et al., Transformations.

45 A. Zamani and A. Grigoriadis, ‘Typology and geographical distribution of social housing in Greece’, in S. Kalogirou (ed.), 1st Spatial Analysis Conference, Conference Proceedings, 17–18 May (Harokopio University, 2013).

46 S.I. Gouvousi, Organized Housing Compounds in Greece: Possibilities and Regeneration Prospects for the Settlements of OEK (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2011).

47 Sapounakis, ‘Settlement issues’.

48 Emmanuel, D., ‘Social housing policy in Greece: the aspects of an absence’, Greek Review of Social Research, 120 (2006), 3–35Google Scholar.

49 I have estimated this number by consulting various bibliographic sources that report the number of dwellings in the majority of the estates.

50 R. Andersson and A. Brama, ‘The Stockholm estates – a tale of the importance of initial conditions, macroeconomic dependencies, tenure and immigration’, in Hess, Tammaru and van Ham (eds.), Housing Estates in Europe, 361–87.

51 A. Power, Hovels to High Rise. State Housing in Europe since 1850 (Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005).

52 Harloe, The People's Home?.

53 Roistacher, E.A., ‘Housing and the welfare state in the United States and western Europe’, The Netherlands Journal of Housing and Environmental Research, 2 (1987), 155Google Scholar.

54 For more about northern and western European countries’ traditions in respect to public agencies providing social housing, see Harloe, The People's Home?.

55 Allen et al., Housing and Welfare.

56 Dimitrakopoulos, Analytical Study on Housing.

57 G. Kandylis and T. Maloutas, ‘From laissez-faire to the camp: immigration and changing models of affordable housing provision in Athens’, in E. Bargelli and T. Heitkamp (eds.), New Developments in Southern European Housing after the Crisis (Pisa, 2017), 127–53.

58 Ibid.

59 Papaioannou and Vasilikioti, Housing.

60 F. Vatavali and D. Siatitsa, The Crises of Habitat and the Need of a New Housing Policy (Encounter Athens, paper series, 2011), https://encounterathens.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/stegastikespolitikes/, accessed 5 Feb. 2015.

61 Kandylis, Maloutas and Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing’.

62 Stavridis et al., Transformations.

63 Kandylis, Maloutas and Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing’.

64 Ibid.

65 Stavridis et al., Transformations.

66 Ibid.

67 Emmanuel, ‘Social housing policy’.

68 Emmanuel, D., ‘Utilising social housing during the post-2009 crisis: problems and constraints in the case of Greece’, Critical Housing Analysis, 4 (2017), 76–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Harloe, The People's Home?.

70 Ibid.

71 A. Murie, ‘Public housing in Europe and North America’, in J. Chen, M. Stephens and Y. Man (eds.), The Future of Public Housing. Ongoing Trends in the East and the West (Berlin, 2013), 165–80.

72 L.S. Bourne, ‘Social housing’, in W. van Vliet (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Housing (London, 1998), 548–9.

73 Power, Hovels to High Rise.

74 Nevertheless, in Italy, Portugal and Spain, the social rental sector developed partially.

75 Allen et al., Housing and Welfare.

76 ELSTAT–EKKE, Panorama.

77 D.B. Hess, T. Tammaru and M. van Ham, ‘Lessons learned from a pan-European study of large housing estates: origin, trajectories of change and future prospects’, in Hess, Tammaru and van Ham (eds.), Housing Estates in Europe, 3–31.

78 Kandylis, Maloutas and Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing’.

79 Ibid.

80 Leontidou, The Mediterranean City.

81 The Ilisos settlement was entirely demolished. The area was fully integrated into the wider area, and some of the residents, who were beneficiaries of the Welfare Ministry, were chiefly relocated to housing estates at Tavros or other areas. Maltby, J., Martin, C., Philippides, D. and Röe, B., ‘Ilissos: a village community in Athens’, Ekistics, 22 (1966), 188–95Google Scholar.

82 Kandylis, Maloutas and Myofa, ‘Exceptional social housing’.

83 T. Maloutas and S. Spyrellis, ‘Inequality and segregation in Athens: maps and data’, in T. Maloutas and S. Spyrellis (eds.), Athens Social Atlas. Digital Compendium of Texts and Visual Material (2019), www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/inequality-and-segregation-in-athens/, accessed 10 Nov. 2020.